untitled film still #14
text from The Photograph as Contemporary Art by Charlotte Cotton:
p.193
Cindy Sherman's 'Untitled Film Stills' is 'a demonstration of the argument advanced by feminist theory that femininity is a construction of cultural codes and not a quality that is naturally inherent or essential to women. Both the photographer and the model in the pictures is Sherman herself... (which is) a condensation of postmodernist photographic practice: she is both observer and observed. And since she is the only model to appear, the series also shows that femininity can be literally put on and performed, changed and mimicked by one actor. The conflation of roles, with Sherman as both subject and creator, is a way of visulalizing femininity that confronts some of the issues raised by images of women, such as who is being represented, and by whom is this projection of the feminine being constructed and for whom.'
comment by Cindy Sherman (click on link above):
'The second year I lived in the city, I felt bored with shooting in my
apartment, so I made these lists of outdoor scenes to look for. I’d
throw together a couple of outfits and wigs in a suitcase, and my
boyfriend at the time, Robert Longo, drove me around the city in his van
and I’d say, “Oh, let’s stop here,” and I’d change in the van and then
hand him the camera and hop out and get into position and kind of walk
around and say, “Okay, now shoot me from here, try this angle.” I might
start with a short blond wig and minimal makeup, and the next one I
would change it to a black wig with more-severe makeup.'
quote from Cindy Sherman in Susan Bright's Art Photography Now:
p.25
'I don't theorize when I work. I would read theoretical stuff about my work and think, "What? Where did they get that?" The work was so intuitive for me, I didn't know where it was coming from. So I thought I had better not say anything or I'd blow it.'